Chapter 70 — Emily's Tea Party

Striking-Eagle was now chief of the Skyreach Tribe and change would be coming. They had given the soft Cresellians in the lowlands below much too much deference. No more. They would learn to respect the strength of his tribe.

“Now that your father is finally out of the way and we have the treaty with Arengrade, our people won’t have to go hungry while the Crysellian villages feast,” Lightning-Sky-Eyes, their tribe’s Sky-speaker, voiced, feeding him the words she thought he wanted to hear.

He grunted a vague agreement.

She might not be a witch like the ones that used the dreamroot to see the visions and commune with spirits, but she was as manipulative as one, and it was her schemes that had finally allowed him to take power… and it grated on him. He was the strongest! Control of the tribe should have been his by right long ago.

He slowly drew the wine into his mouth from the goblet and savored its taste. His fool father had kept the wine sealed for decades saying it was a special year and would only get better with age, kept it for a future day he would never see, and now someone else was enjoying it in the fool’s place. That was his father’s leadership summed up—always saving and holding back for a future day that would never come.

Why the Sky-speaker had come to his tent to celebrate the success of their plan was obvious. Did she believe he wouldn’t notice the arousing effect of the perfume she was wearing? Maybe it was her way of telling him she would do what she wanted even if he was chief. Strength wasn’t just in one’s spear. So, he wasn’t offended by her brazen disregard.

He would lay with her as she desired. She was older than anyone still alive knew, but she had inherited the bloodline of the long-lost Sky-dragon strongly, and with the strength of her magic, she had yet to show any sign of her untold years. That she intended to use his future son to replace him was of no concern. If his son was stronger, then his son deserved to lead by right.

Swallowing the wine, he felt disappointment. All those years of waiting and it was no better than what they could trade for. Would the lord of Vorshan’s Hills have better in his manor? He tossed the goblet to the side in disgust at the waste.

Not including herself and Emily, ten girls had shown up for Emily’s tea party, meeting at the bakery before heading out through the west gate as a group. Ria led the group along the stream to a scenic spot that she noticed on her adventure with Keira and Leon. Between herself, Ranger, Jess, and Keira, Ria wasn’t worried about any problems with monsters intruding on their fun. The weather had turned out lovely even if slightly on the chilly side, and a quickly drawn insect-repelling barrier secured the site from pests of the non-monster variety.

Ria was proud of the spread she and Emily had been able to source and felt it would compare favorably with any tea party the aristocrats in the big cities could provide. After all, Grandma Fana and Emily’s mom, Lina, had collaborated on preparing the sandwiches, cookies, and tarts. And together with the tea from Patricia’s tea shop, the dainty morsels were disappearing at an amusing rate. Even the two tea sets she and Emily had purchased were fine porcelain and gave the affair a delicate feel as they sat on the two cutely embroidered cloths provided by Miss Danna.

Since the party was divided into two groups, Ria chose to sit with the half of the girls she didn’t know, and she was happily chatting with them to practice her recently tutored—and hopefully improving—social skills and to expand her circle of friends. It would have been terrible for the party to separate into ‘elite’ and ‘commoners’ groups after all! Emily gave her a thankful smile at the consideration. Ria marveled at the thought of how far she had come from just a season ago as she led the small gathering of girls in their pleasantries.

Of course, Jess had stuck to Ria, uncomfortable enough at wearing a fancy dress and borrowed jewelry, and sitting in the group with Keira would have been too much. Getting Jess to wear the low-cut dress that dramatically presented the girl’s ample assets had been an amusing exercise in bullying an older girl who was surprisingly more modest than expected. Ria had actually need to prepare a skin-darkening cream to even out Jess’ suntan because the girl apparently wore her armor almost all the time. With Grandma Fana’s help, she did knit Jess a nice shawl to make the finished outfit a bit less revealing though.

Ria cringed when two of the girls asserted that Gebs would be a good catch because he was sure to be the next Captain of the Guardsmen but somehow managed to smile politely and wish them luck in their competition. After their admissions, the pair of ‘Gebs admirers’ pressed a shy red-haired girl named Aeri about her plans for the future until the girl reluctantly admitted that her father was looking into sending her to a school in the Capital where she would learn about city and town planning and administrating.

“Really? That’s great, Aeri!” Ria enthused. “Maybe Keira’s family can put in a good word for you like they did for Leon?”

Keira nodded from where she was sitting in the other group and encouraged, “The more people from Vorshan’s Hills that we can get into important positions, the better. As it is, other than my grandfather’s connections, House Vorshan’s influence in the capital is mainly limited to my aunt, and that’s only because she married into an influential house. If you did well enough to get recruited by, or even marry into, one of the Greater Houses that could be a significant boon for Vorshan’s Hills.”

Aeri impressively blushed and worried her skirt. “Um, thank you, for the kind words, Young Lady Keira.”

“Wow! I’m so jealous! You’ll get to attend parties with nobles and knights and rich merchant’s sons!” one of the Gebs girls, a brunette with a knobby nose and flat brows, gushed.

“Why don’t you go too then, so I can have Gebs to myself?” the other Gebs girl, a girl with ebony hair and attractive hazel eyes but a less ample chest than her competitor, facetiously suggested.

“What do you think, Jess?” Ria prompted, trying not to smirk too much at the glare Jess shot her.

“Aren’t most of them snakes and worse always trying to ruin each other?” Jess put forward.

“I have heard that,” Lisa agreed. Ria was glad that Lisa had attended. She was worried that their relationship was still a little strained, but Lisa was showing effort to put the hard feelings in the past.

“Boo, where’s your sense of romance!” the knobby-nosed girl objected.

“What makes you say that, Jess?” Ria asked, curious.

Jess huffed and looked embarrassed before admitting, “There’s not a lot to do when I can’t afford training and there isn’t any work at the guild, so sometimes I read the stories in the guild library…”

“The guild library has fiction stories?” Lisa asked, surprised.

“But you’re so strong and pretty, Jess!” the knobby-nosed girl objected, eyeing Jess’ larger chest. “Can’t you get any boy in the village? Or… one of the hunters? You could eat meat every night!” The girl affected a voice that she might be saying something almost scandalous at mentioning the hunters but barreled ahead once it was well-enough received.

The hazel-eyed girl nodded her agreement. “Yeah, couldn’t you rely on a husband and not have to do… dangerous things?”

As one of the older girls at the party, if not the oldest, it wasn’t hard to see Jess being the first of the group to leave them for the housewives group. She was only a few years younger than Yuri who was much smaller than Jess and already had two children. Ria had invited Yuri to come, but she was worried about taking Toben and Sammy outside the walls of the village.

Jess grimaced. “It’s not that I haven’t thought about it, but my family needs me.”

At the ‘o’ faces made by the other girls, Ria spoke up, “Doesn’t Hemse bless those who work hard for themselves and others?”

The four girls seated around the cloth with Ria and Jess each nodded as if remembering something important.

“Um, Jess, what books do you like?” Emily inquired from her group with Kiera, Miela, Wendy, and two of Emily’s friends who were Miss Danna’s apprentices. “I’m currently reading Duchess of the Isles.”

"You're reading Helmund’s Duchess of the Isles?" Keira asked, her eyes shining.

“Ah... yes, Young Lady Keira.” Emily reached into her handbag and brought out the well-worn copy. “Ria bought it for me."

"What's your favorite part?"

Ria smiled to herself at how well the conversation was flowing. Using the techniques she had learned from her new etiquette tutor, Ria had succeeded in making sure none of the girls ended up ignored or without anything to contribute to the discussions. She was learning so much thanks to Lord Vorshan.

She would have to encourage Emily to make these tea parties a regular occurrence. There was so much she needed to practice in the limited time remaining before the spring that each tea party would surely be an invaluable experience. Of course, with winter approaching, they would have to find new places to meet. Maybe Keira could arrange the use of a room at the manor? Or the fire attuned section of the manor’s back garden, maybe? Or Patricia’s shop.

It was a shame they couldn’t use Emily’s family bakery since that would be nicely toasty. Ria chuckled at the thought. Though if she didn’t mind spending the energy for supplying barriers to keep out the wind and provide warmth, where they met likely didn’t matter as long as the cultivated mood was good.

Letting her gaze settle toward where the capital city lay some distance over the horizon, Ria committed herself to enjoy and cherish these peaceful days among friends. All too soon, her life would be uprooted again when she enrolled at the Grand Academy and began the next stage in her struggle toward her future and the realization of her revenge.

END of Book 1